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Peterhead

Peterhead pētərhĕd´ [key], town (1991 pop. 16,804), Aberdeenshire, NE Scotland, on a peninsula on the North Sea. It is the easternmost town, with a good harbor, of Scotland. Chiefly a center of herring fisheries, Peterhead has fish canneries, distilleries, and woolen mills. The town was founded in 1593 by George Keith, 5th earl marischal of Scotland. James Francis Stuart , the Old Pretender, landed secretly at Peterhead in 1715. The local economy benefited from the discovery of North Sea oil in the early 1970s.